Sticky Rice

Friday, 20 March 2009 07:55

Today we awoke to the first blue skies we’ve had on our trip to China. From our hotel room in Suzhou, we had a great view of government apartments that surrounded the hotel.

In Beijing, we learned that people living in Hutongs leased their houses for $30 a month. I’m not sure of the price of these apartments but living in the single family houses appeals more to me.

 

Our first stop today was the Lingering Garden, one of the 4 classic gardens in China. The garden was built 400 years ago during the Ming Dynasty.

It's much greener here in Suzhou than in Beijing. Spring is definitely on its way, however, I think we are about 2 to 3 weeks away from its peak.

From the Lingering Garden, our next stop was a Silk factory where we learned about the different qualities of silk and how the silk worms are raised.

From the sounds of it, the first part of a silk worm’s life is quite nice. They’re fed four times a day and have two nice long sleeps before creating their cocoon. At this point their life’s take a dramatic change as they are sold (exchanged) to the government, moved to the silk factory, and dumped in boiling hot water. It was then off to (yup, you guessed it) the silk store where you could buy silk bedding, clothing, and scarves. Most of the women on the trip seemed to really enjoy this part of the trip as well as the Silk Embroidery Institute that followed. While sitting outside the institute waiting for everyone to regroup, I heard one of the guys on the trip saying he hoped the remaining sights and activities would start including more “guy” things. He had his wish because after lunch we were all offered a taste of Snake Wine.

I’ve started to understand the whole educate/sell process going on during this trip. The cost of the trip was very inexpensive; only $2000 which included airfare, hotels, buses and all meals. I checked airfare before leaving and just the air ticket alone is about $2000. We’ve heard the Chinese government helps keep the cost down. The tour guides are independent and during the year they work for several travel agencies. My guess is that the agencies don’t pay much for their services. To make ends meet, the guides have arrangements with the “factories” to receive a commission based on how much the tourists spend. This started becoming clear after I noticed that every time we get off the bus, we are handed a ticket that is uniquely numbered for the bus. When you buy something you need to show this ticket to the casher. I’ve noticed that the tour guide also starts the selling process well before arriving at the next location. It’s possible to predict how expensive the items will be based on the story we’re told.

After lunch it was off to Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill got its name because one day, a white tiger appeared to guard the tomb of King Helu.

Tomorrow it’s off to West Lake for a boat ride.

Oh yeah, what’s up with that title, "Sticky Rice"? Our tour guide, Emily, told us about how in this area of China, rice is prepared in such a way that it’s sticky. Everyone in this area loves the rice because the grains stick together.  Emily would like us to stick together during the tours like Sticky Rice…..I’m more of a fried noodle.